The Trump administration floated the idea of taking control of Washington’s police department amid nationwide protests over police brutality, according to media reports on Tuesday.
Trump said in remarks in the White House Rose Garden on Monday he would deploy thousands of soldiers and law enforcement officers to halt violence in the US capital and threatened to do the same in other cities.
4,000 POLICE MEMBERS HAVE TAKEN PLACE
“I think you heard the president yesterday that he wanted a show of force in D.C. and we know that they examined a lot of ways to do that,” Muriel Bowser, the city’s mayor, told reporters on Tuesday. Her office told reporters the Trump administration had floated the idea of federalizing the district’s 4,000-member police force, the Washington Post and the local NBC affiliate reported earlier.
An additional 1,500 national guardsmen join the DC National Guard on Tuesday in response to protests.
The chief of the National Guard bureau confirmed this morning on a call with reporters that national guardsmen from Indiana, South Carolina, Tennessee, and now Maryland will be deployed to the District.
Close to 1,300 soldiers and airmen in the D.C. national guard were already deployed to the District on Monday night, augmented by national guard troops from Utah and New Jersey to assist civilian law enforcement efforts in the ongoing protests of police brutality.
